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14 Responses to “Video of Virgin Birth Talk Uploaded”

Me and my sister watched this today and we had great discussion from it! I loved the last bit about interpreting prophecy analogously (more of that please) and I can only dare to hope that we’ll have more video goodness in the future.

Just a quick note to the readers, after the video is over you’ll see little thumbnails of the other videos so if you click on them you’ll go to the Vimeo site and can watch all three parts back to back and see other pastors talk from Dr. Heiser’s church (not saying Dr. Heiser personally stands behind everything said by them but I think it’s logical to infer that since this church allows him to speak in front of people they are somewhat trustworthy). Ok, thanks!

@Jonnathan Molina: I liked this: “since this church allows him to speak in front of people” – ! It’s true; I don’t get many invitations (no joke). Grace Church in Bellingham is a new work, and the pastor is secure (like me) in his own lack of omniscience. He knows where I’m at and his aim is to foster discussion about the text. It’s about getting people interested in their Bible and thinking about it / discovering it all over again.

Sounds like a great place to be on Sundays! I thought it so timely that I’ve recently made a commitment to really study the book of Ephesians and-presto!-mixed in with your videos is a whole series by one of the church’s speakers about Ephesians, so..there you go. I really love that term “secure in his own lack of omniscience”…I’m stealing, er, I mean, borrowing that for myself, lol. Would that all of us would be so inclined.

Mike – I’ve heard the MT could have been altered a little (very little) in order to further distance the Jewish Tanakh from Christianity, particularly where the NT quotes the OT. This presentation demonstrates we don’t even have to bring that up as we’re on very solid ground with Isaiah 7:14 as it is in the MT.

I’m curious though about what you think of in that debate. Where the MT and LXX have slightly different renderings, do you believe some of that could have been intentional?

@Chris: There are certainly instances of deliberate alteration of the Hebrew text against the Hebrew underlying LXX. Deut 32:8 is probably the most famous of these (see my Bib Sac article on this – Deuteronomy 32:8 and the Sons of God – a pre-publication form of it is available on my divine council site: http://www.thedivinecouncil.com. As part of the “textual standardization” of the Hebrew text for the Jewish community ca. 100 AD, the LXX (and its Hebrew basis) became off limits to faithful Jews. This effort coincided (but not by coincidence!) with declaring the two powers in heaven idea a heresy – that will be my next and last video upload sometime after Sunday if you are unfamiliar with that subject). LXX was the Bible of the Christians, and the standardized text produced by the scribes (the Masoretic Text) became the Bible of the Jew.

Dr. Heiser, I am amazed at how well you break down the text and find clues to explain verses, insomuch that I don’t call it exegesis, but Biblical Forensics!

I thought you made a great point about Matthew speaking at some point during the apostles’ time with Jesus, and it does seem logical to expect that at one point or another, Mary would have told of the miraculous birth. Perhaps that is how the writers knew of Jesus’ early life, for example in Luke 2, when Jesus was “lost” and his parents were looking for him, and found him in the temple, and Jesus replied that he was about his Father’s business. It’s interesting that Luke makes it a point, in verse 50, “And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them.”

It allowed me to better understand what I am currently studying in an Isaiah class. We truly live in wonderful times, which allow all to see and learn more about His (that is of God’s) Words and works. Thank you again for creating this.

It was very straightforward and right to the point. God Bless Everyone.

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"The impatient, who are concerned only about results or practical application, should leave their hands off exegesis. They are of no value for it, nor, when rightly done, is exegesis of any value for them."
~Ernst Käsemann